‘Beware the Ides of March’, Julius Caesar was warned in the famous Shakespeare play named after him.

But when he didn’t listen and was literally stabbed in the back by his best friends, 15 March became a day of infamy and bad luck.

And now it’s upon once us again. Looking through history, the evidence seems to stack up that it’s a day to be extra wary.

What are the ides of March?

It’s actually just a day marked on the Roman calendar. ‘Ides’ was one the phrases they used to mark fixed points in the month, here the 13th or 15th day.

It only gained its superstitious meaning after the murder of Roman politician Julius Caesar. Historians of the time note that a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March, which was then further immortalised by Shakespeare.

Here are six things that prove we should definitely beware the Ides of March.

1) Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia leading us to go to war

Women greet Hitler with the Nazi salute after he crossed the border into the formerly Czechoslovak Sudetenland in 1938 (Photo: Bundesarchiv Bild/Wikimedia)

Hitler invaded many European countries, but this conquest in Europe would have big consequences for Britain in particular. Namely starting the chain of events that would lead us into going to war with Germany.

After he invaded Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939, Poland formed a military alliance with Britain to protect themselves. So when Hitler set his sights on it later that year, we rose to the threat on Poland and the rest of Europe by going to war.

It would finally culminate with us defeating Hitler, of course, in 1945. But not without much unspeakable suffering in Czechoslovakia and across the world.

2) We lost the first ever test match versus Australia

It may have been in 1877, but the humiliation is still raw. Even if no one there at the time is still alive.

The loss of the first ever cricket test match against Australia started a neverending quest for revenge for English sports fans.

No matter how many matches we’ve won since, we’re always on a mission to win those Ashes back.

3) The last Tsar of Russia abdicated

(Photo: Boissonnas & Eggler)

It was the end of 304-year-old dynasty and Russia as an empire. For good. It would be a fate to change the course of history forever with the emergence of the Soviet Union.

And it didn’t end well for Nicolas II. The new socialist government took him and his family captive and executed him with a firing squad in July 1918.

4) The World Health Organisation announces the outbreak of SARS

A map showing the outbreak of SARS in 2002-2003 (Picture: Strickla/Wikimedia)

WHO issued a heightened global health alert on 15 March 2003 about the virus. Between November 2002 and July 2003 it infected over 8,000 people with a death rate of 9.6 per cent.

5) Chatrooms debuted on the internet

Most of us will remember the internet only really becoming a big thing in the 90s. But, believe it or not, people were talking online in 1971.

15 March in that year was when chatrooms made their first official debut, as well as email and floppy disks.

Whether this can be considered a bad thing is totally down to personal opinion. But haters of WhatsApp and believers that Facebook makes you depressed could track the origins of these apps to this more basic form of online communication.

6) We learned just how much we’ve destroyed the ozone layer

Climate experts say that the annual Antarctic ozone hole has expanded to a larger size compared to last year, but that it is no cause for panic (Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)

Our ozone layer is important. It absorbs most of the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation, protecting us and the Earth from major harm.

On 15 March 1988, the world was horrified to learn from NASA that the ozone layer was depleting three times faster than we previously thought due to our use of harmful chemicals, like chloroflourocarbons (CFCs).